message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

            
Blades of Glory  Rated PG
Directed by Will Speck, Josh Gordon.  Starring Will Ferrell, Jon Heder

Photos © Dreamworks Pictures'
Ferrell is such a comic genius, laughs are virtually guaranteed the moment he comes onscreen.  As Chazz Michael Michaels, Ferrell plays a self-absorbed championship skater (and recovering sex addict) who dances on ice to 80’s hair band music and lives a rock and roll lifestyle filled with excessive drinking and countless groupies.  His main rival is Jimmy MacElroy (Heder), an ice-skating orphan who is adopted by a billionaire and groomed for success.  Jimmy’s routines are graceful and poetic, the polar opposite of Chazz.  When the two of them get into a scuffle during an awards ceremony, they are both banned from their skating division for life.  One of Jimmy’s fans discovers a loophole in the rules; the two of them can come back into the rink if they join together as a skating couple.  Both Ferrell and Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) are good choices for their characters, and the skating routines are very enjoyable.  Unfortunately, it’s not enough to carry a 90 minute movie, and the weak plot (involving a brother-sister skating team out to ruin the reputation of their new rivals) is tiresome and tacky.  Blades of Glory skates on thin ice, as well, by resorting to so much sexual humor.  Its PG-13 rating guarantees that the raunchy gags will go “so far and no farther” which makes it uncomfortable viewing for younger audiences and hesitant and hypocritical entertainment for adults. The jokes involving a sex addicts 12-step group are particularly cheap and demeaning.  Perhaps I’ve gotten spoiled by Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, the two great Ferrell comedies directed by Adam McKay. There is some great comedic wheat among the tares, however.  I especially enjoyed Scott Hamilton’s effusive commentary during the ridiculous ice skating sequences.  See this at a cheap matinee and leave the kids at home and you should have a good enough time.

Pitchfork Rating: Two halos. (An intermittently funny character-driven comedy which skates off the rink with a mediocre plot.)  Two pitchforks. (Almost constant sexual humor, some violence, alcohol abuse, sexual stereotypes.

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